There
are just so many stories concerning animal sentience
that from time to time you just stumble upon them,
here is one.

In her
book, Red Rowans and Wild Honey , a memoir of the
childhood and adolescence of a Gypsy traveller in
Scotland before the end of the second world war,
Betsy Whyte shares this moving anecdote:

"In our
simple society we regarded nothing in the world so
precious as human life. Life of any kind, even
animals, was loved with an almost fierce strength
and compassion.

I
remember four stout relations of mine being reduced
to tears when they discovered animals too were
capable of feeling this deep love for each other.
They were young men and had been used to going on
hare-hunts since childhood. One evening their dog
raised two hares and eventually caught one. On this
the other hare ran back and sat screaming pitifully
as it watched the killing. Of course they called the
dog in, and came home very, very shaken, and
surprised that an animal should behave like that.
The wife of one of the men started to chide him for
being late for supper .' Dinne speak to me, women. I
want nae supper .I could'nae eat a bit if God called
on me'.

'Dinne
tell me that the gamekeeper catched youze? his wife
asked. 'Worse than that,' he answered. 'I will never
be the same again if I live to be a hundred, and
never again will I set a dog after a hare'. He and
the others than related what happened.

Their
eyes were wet and their faces pale as they did so.

I was
very moved by this story which the author told after
discussing her shock and horror concerning the
atrocities of world war two and the callous reaction
'the
gloating delight of many people around me'to the
bombing of Japan.

I live
within close proximity to some of the most unspoilt
places of scenic beauty here in the UK, namely the
Yorkshire dales and moors, the Durham Dales,
Northumbrian National Park and the Lake district of
Cumbria. My family and I often spend a day walking
and enjoying the natural peace of these places.
However during the autumn until late December it is
the hunting season and you are likely to encounter
armed men hunting for grouse, peasant and ducks and
no doubt shooting rabbits and hares who they are of
course free to shoot at any time of the year. The
silence is often shattered by the sounds of gun fire
as some poor defenceless creature looses his life.
Its a chilling and sickening sound.

It is
my hope that in time more and more people will come
to understand that these creatures are sentient
beings, aware of themselves and others, capable of
suffering both pain and fear but also capable of
love and friendship or bonds of attachment which we
perhaps cannot understand. Most definitely animals
form close bonds with one anther and suffer grief
when their partner dies. Hopefully one day those who
derive pleasure from taking the lives of another
defenceless living being will someday understand the
cruelty and inhumanity behind their callous acts and
stop hunting and other forms of cruelty forever.

I am in
the process of compiling a webpage that will feature
stories of animal sentience and I am looking for
accounts that show animal awareness. Such stories
may include the bonds between two animals such as
the bond of love or friendship or even jealousy -
often a problem with dogs - or other stories that
show that animals are sentient beings capable of a
whole range of emotions such happiness or sorrow.
Also stories of animal intelligence or ingenuity,
indeed any anecdote either of your own or a story
like the one above that you happen to come across
would be most welcome.

If you
have a story about any animal please contact me, I
would be pleased to include it in this new section.
barley77@aol.com

For
more information about and stories related to animal
sentience please click:

Concerning
their attempts to reinstate the barbaric sport of
fox hunting, within a few weeks of being elected the
present British government might do well to heed
the following passage repeated from an appeal made
by
Charles Darwin against steel traps :

Bull-baiting and cock-fighting have rightly been put
down by law; I hope it may never be said that the
members of the British Parliament will not make laws
to protect animals if such laws should in any way
interfere with their own sports.

It is time
that all hunting was banned, it is an anachronism,
a shocking cruelty not worthy of any nation which
wishes to call itself civilsied.

Hunting
CampaignIt was undoubtedly the League Against Cruel
Sports' proudest moment when the culmination of
eighty years' campaigning brought about the Hunting
Act in 2004, protecting wildlife from the savagery
and cruelty of the hunt.

However, despite the consigning of their 'sport' to
the history books, the hunters are now stepping up
their efforts to have the Hunting Act repealed.
Moreover, some politicians want to repeal the
hunting ban despite 75% of the public being in
favour of keeping it.

Please
visit the website of the League against cruel sports
for more information and action you can take.

I
am in favour of animal rights as well as human
rights. That is the way of a whole human being.Abraham Lincoln

Here on
this website in February 2011 I have included a new
addition to the Animal Rights section of the
website,
Animal Rights a History.

This is by
no means an exhaustive compilation of the history of
animal rights but rather provides highlights of some
of the events and people that paved the way towards
our modern day concept of this ideology.
From ancient times to the present day, this section
highlights the lives and writings of the advocates
of animal rights, those who have made some
contribution to helping humanity think differently
about the millions of species of sentient life with
whom we share this world. Some
of the people included may not have intentionally
set out to make a difference or were advocates of
animal rights in the way we perceive this ideology
today, but most certainly all the people I have
included have contributed in some way towards the
long and arduous struggle to procure the rights of
animals to live their lives free from harm and
exploitation. Contributors to the cause include
scientists, philosophers, writers, religious leaders
and ordinary people who have contributed their
wisdom, time, efforts, and finances into helping the
cause of liberating our fellow creatures from the
appalling onslaught of abuse and exploitation.

The man who has become a thinking being feels a
compulsion to give every
will-to-live the reverence for life that he gives
his own.

Albert
Schweitzer

Some
people may question why animals should have rights,
that is if indeed they consider the issue at all.
Whilst compiling Animal Rights: A History I have
endeavoured to comprehend the somewhat complicated
rationale put forward by philosophers concerning the
reasons why we should treat animals more humanely
and why we should grant animals rights and stop
exploiting them. Such concepts as a
"subjects-of-a-life",
utilitarianism,
and other terms are perhaps not easy to grasp for
everyone and we can often miss the point. Although
with some exceptions many of these philosophies are
sound, for me personally the reasons why we should
grant animals rights is far more simplistic. We
should grant rights to animals simply because
animals like you and I just want to live, no
creature wishes to die or suffer physical or
psychological pain. I know I do not want to die,
nor do I want to feel pain either physical or
emotional and this is the same for the vast majority
of human beings including those who inflict death
and suffering on billions of animals every year,
year after year, after year. Yet they continue to
contribute to the slaughter and exploitation of
animals either directly or by complicity. And
consider if you eat meat you are complicit, as is
also the case if you use cosmetics that are tested
on animals and contain animal ingredients, still
highly likely despite an initiative by the EU to
stop cosmetic testing (note a ban on testing does
not mean the product does not contain animal
ingredients, most cosmetics do unless the label
states otherwise), if you ride a horse, own a pet,
wear wool or leather or involve yourself in the
umpteen varieties of ways that we use animals in our
society, ways so numorous that few realise the
extent to which this is prevalent.

We must
fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with
which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much
as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose
such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the
whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle
of compassion to all living things, humanity will
not find peace.
Albert Schweitzer, The Philosophy of Civilization

It is
admitted that no one can be one hundred percent
vegan, so entrenched in our lives is our dependence
on the death and suffering of animals to provide the
style of life that is modern living, at least for
those who are supplied with an overabundance, mostly
people in the west. Nonetheless the ideal aim is to
become vegan and endeavour as far as is possible to
abstain from food or other commodities that involve
the death and suffering of billions of sentient
beings and the denial of freedom which is vital to
the well-being of any animal however large or small.
Believe it or not size it seems is a criterion upon
which many people judge whether or not an animal is
worth saving! Consider how many people would be
concerned if dolphins were exploited to the brink of
extinction, yet few would care about the imminent
extinction of an insect. Yet all lives are precious
to every being who exists, all creatures fear death,
wish to avoid pain, seek comfort and value their
freedom. Caged and restricted animals soon develop
neurosis and become depressed just like human
beings. Animals being sent to slaughter cry out
knowing the fate that awaits them. Cows cry for days
when their calves are taken from them. Indeed all
creatures wish to continue existing and for this
reason if no other we should grant animals the right
to live out the full duration of their lives
unmolested, unexploited.

Sadly the
road is a long and arduous one and progress, at
least compared to the drastic increase in the abuse
of animals, is slow and the horrors inflicted upon
sentient beings ever more shocking from the mass
slaughter of baby seals and the flaying of live
rabbits and cattle for their fur or leather to the
hideous experiments on animals in the name of
science or simply to sell a product .

Sadly I
doubt I will see during the duration of my life any
drastic improvements in the lot of enslaved,
suffering and abused animals, denied the basic of
all rights, the right to live the duration of the
life that nature intended.

I would
like to see the cessation of farming of all kinds
along with the banning of other abusive treatments
such as the use of animals for labour or
experimentation and an end to hunting . Basically
the answer of course is to become vegan, a course of
action we can all take if we wish to play a part in
bringing about justice and freedom for our fellow
creatures. Even if you can make no other
contribution to the cause of animal liberation, for
the sake of all creatures including human beings and
for the environment it is vital to adopt a vegan
diet .

I hope
that one day human beings will look back on the
atrocities we have committed towards other species
with whom we share this world with a sense of
revulsion, much in the way we now look back at the
horrors of slavery and the holocaust and finally see
it for the evil that it is.

The
numbers of beings who have met untimely deaths after
months or years of suffering is staggering simply to
sate the appetites of those, usually of the world's
rich and over privileged, who crave a food that is
not natural and comes at the expense of other
sentient beings, not only animals but other human
beings, and the environment. It has to stop, if we
ever wish to find peace, and live in a fair and just
world or consider ourselves truly ethical.

Since
compassion for animals is so intimately associated
with goodness of character, it may be confidently
asserted that whoever is cruel to animals cannot be
a good man.On
the Basis of Morality

Ask the
experimenters why they experiment on animals, and
the answer is: 'Because the animals are like us.'
Ask the experimenters why it is morally OK to
experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because
the animals are not like us.' Animal experimentation
rests on a logical contradiction."
Professor Charles R. Magel

Generally regarded as stupid creatures research is
showing that sheep are far more intelligent than
most people realise.

In the
last few days several newspapers have run the story
that scientists have discovered that sheep are as
intelligent as rodents, monkeys and even in some
tests humans. According to Cambridge scientists,
sheep have relatively advanced learning
capabilities, are adaptable and able to mentally map
out their surroundings. Neuroscientist Professor
Jenny Morton said that sheep are more intelligent
than they get credit for.

Quoted
in an article in the Telegraph she said:

"They
have a reputation for being extremely dim and their
flock behaviour backs that up as they are very silly
animals when in a group – if there is a hole they
will fall into it, if there is something to knock
over, then they will knock it over.

"So I didn't expect them to be so amenable to
testing and certainly didn't expect them to be so
smart. In our tests they performed at a level very
similar to monkeys and humans in the initial
learning tasks.

"When we then changed the rules they still performed
as well as monkeys and better than rodents.

"They are quite intelligent animals – they seem to
be able to recognise people and even respond when
you call their name."

Tests were carried out on several Welsh mountain
sheep to ascertain their learning ability as an
indication of their intelligence. One test involved
the use of different coloured buckets to see how
long it would take the sheep to learn that food
could be found in the same coloured bucket. The
sheep learnt this in only seven sessions, the same
time it would take rodents, monkeys and humans to
successfully complete comparable tests. The sheep
also adapted in the same amount of time as rodents
and monkeys when the food was switched to a
different coloured bucket. In addition the sheep
also proved adept when a more complex test was
carried out where they had to learn were food was
located according to coloured shapes.

Other
tests carried out by Professor Morton and her
colleagues to assess the spatial memory of sheep
demonstrated that sheep are able to navigate by
forming memories of their surrounding environments.

So why
are scientists interested in sheep intelligence?
Unfortunately these tests are not undertaken to
discount the sheep's reputation as a particularly
unintelligent animal, rather these tests are carried
out in the hope that sheep will be useful as an
animal model in the research into Huntington's
disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to
dementia and affects muscle control, and other
conditions such as Alzheimer's disease where the
memory and cognitive abilities are impaired.

According to one article scientists in Australia
have created a genetically modified sheep who
displays symptoms similar to Huntington's disease.
However at this stage it is not clear if these
animals will present with a comparable decline in
cognition and memory with humans.

Although the above information validates the fact
that sheep are more intelligent than we give them
credit for it is to my way of thinking a shocking
incongruity to than use them as the subjects of
experiments.

I
usually say when writing about animal rights, that
the right of an animal to live his or her life free
from exploitation and abuse should not be considered
on the basis of how intelligent the creatures is.
Apparently concerning experiments researchers in
fact give no consideration to an animal's
intelligence never mind his or her ability to feel
pain. It even appears here, that if an animal's
intelligence is comparable to that of humans the
animal is than considered as useful in experiments,
and as a consequence such experiments are conducted
regardless of the animal's intelligence or ability
to suffer on either an emotional or physical level.

Since
setting up this website I feel overwhelmed
concerning the horrific nature of and the extent to
which experimentation is carried out upon animals
regardless of their intelligence or their awareness
of the unimaginable cruelty perpetrated against
them; in the name of science it seem human beings
will invariably consider such cruelty justifiable.

In the
fight against animal exploitation, including animal
experiments, people need to think differently
concerning their relationship with the other
creatures with whom we share our world - sentient
creatures who wish to live their lives free from
exploitation and its detrimental consequences -
and not see them as here for our use or abuse
however good our misguided intentions may appear to
be. Mark Twain in a letter to the Editor, "Mark
Twain on Scientific Research," of Animals' Friend
said

I
believe I am not interested to know whether
Vivisection produces results that are profitable to
the human race or doesn't. To know that the results
are profitable to the race would not remove my
hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon
unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity
towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification
of the enmity without looking further.
Extract letter Vivisection Society

However
noble the motivation may appear to find solutions to
the dreadful infirmities with which humans are
afflicted, and indeed other creatures, - note tests
are carried out in the course of veterinary medicine
- in my opinion the dreadful cruelty inflicted on
non human animals in order to bring this about can
never be justified.

Sheep
are of course not the only creatures used as animal
models for the type of research that requires an
animal with an increased intelligence or who at
least manifests similar facets of intelligence as
humans. Primates are used in such research with the
creation of a transgenic monkey in 2008

Researchers often rely on
mice to study a host of
genetic diseases in the lab.
That's not a satisfactory
approach for many
neurodegenerative illnesses,
which involve cognitive and
behavioral symptoms that
don't map easily from human
patients onto rodents. Now,
in a development that opens
the door to modeling such
illnesses in primates,
researchers have created the
first transgenic monkeys
with neurological signs of
Huntington's disease (HD).

It is Interesting to note in this
article a reference is made to dogs
having evolved to consume a carnivorous
diet thus rending them of no value in
experiments into heart disease in human
beings. Surely this strongly suggests
that heart disease in humans is the
result of the misconception that the
eating of meat is natural.

Animal experimentation is misguided,
cruel and unnecessary and it has to
stop.

"I have studied the question of
vivisection for thirty-five years and am
convinced that experiments on living
animals are leading medicine further and
further from the real cure of the
patient. I know of no instance of animal
experiment that has been necessary for
the advancement of medical science;
still less do I know of any animal
experiment that could conceivably be
necessary to save human life."
H. Fergie Woods, M.D.

Atrocities are not less atrocities when
they occur in laboratories and are
called medical research.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), the
1925 Nobel Laureate for Literature.

I abhor vivisection. I know of no
achievement through vivisection, no
scientific discovery that could not have
been obtained without such barbarism and
cruelty."
Dr. Charles W. Mayo, surgeon and
governor at the leading Mayo Clinic
research hospital.

More information

A
selection of organisations campaigning against the
use of animals in all forms of experimentation

British Union for the abolishment of vivisection,
whose vision it is "to create
a world where no body wants or believes we need to
experiment on animals".Information,
campaigns and much more
buav.org/

National Anti-Vivisection Alliance

A new
organisation in the campaign to stop animal
experimentation founded in July 2010 is The National
Anti-Vivisection Alliance (NAVA). The NAVA is the
UK's leading grassroots organisation, fighting to
bring a complete end to animal experimentation.

More on
the subject concerning the harmful effects of animal
experimentation not only on the unfortunate animals
but also as an impediment to finding a cure for the
many diseases which ravage human and on human
animals.

There
is a growing movement of healthcare
professionals including doctors, scientists, and
educated members of the public who are opposed
to non-human animal-based experimentation on
specifically medical and scientific grounds.
They argue that animal research is based on a
false premise, that results obtained through
animal experimentation can be applied to the
human body.

My
heart goes out to the stricken people of Japan
during what is the worse humanitarian crisis I
can remember. I cannot imagine the horror
experienced during this devastating catastrophe
or the continued misery and suffering . My
sincere and heart felt sympathy for all who have
lost loved ones and continue to suffer severe
deprivation.

Animals also are suffering of course and many
companion animals have had to be abandoned as
shelters refuse to allow people to bring their
animals.

PETA and other animals rights/welfare groups are
going to the stricken regions of Japan in a bid
to help destitute abandoned and injured animals.

Dogs are known for their loyalty. The dog in
this video is not only loyal but compassionate
as he stays close by his injured companion
amongst the devastation of the Japanese
earthquake, refusing to leave his side. Notice
also how he approaches the commentator and the
person filming, it is obvious he is asking for
help.

The
good news is that both dogs have been rescued
and are receiving medical care.

Help Animals

Animal welfare organisations are working to help
Japan's stricken animals. Many thousands of cats
and dogs and other animals have been left
abandoned, injured and left homeless after the
earthquake and tsunami.

Below are some of the organisations involved in
helping

World Vets

World Vets has been monitoring the situation in
Japan with regards to the impact of the
earthquake and tsunami that has recently hit the
island nation. We are currently working to
coordinate relief efforts for the animal victims
affected by these unfortunate disasters.

PETA Asia-Pacific staff have gone to some of the
hardest-hit areas along the eastern coast of
Japan in order to offer aid to animals in
distress. The ferocious tsunami in Japan has
already claimed the lives of hundreds of people
and countless animals.

Please make an urgent donation to support
animals who are suffering right now. All funds
donated to PETA UK via this donation form will
be granted to PETA Asia-Pacific's critical work
for animals.

One
of the first members of an international animal
rights group to reach the disaster area, PETA
Asia-Pacific senior campaigner Ashley Fruno has
been in Japan with Isabella Gallaon-Aoki of
Animal Friends Niigata since the day after the
devastation.

Ashley and Isabella are providing food, water,
and care to animals abandoned when their
guardians fled to evacuation centers, and are
also providing food to animals whose guardians
are having a hard time getting supplies. They
are visiting the worst-affected areas in search
of animals who need help, and their team remains
in touch with the local authorities.

You can help fund Ashley's
work and other rescue work today through PETA’s
Animal Emergency Fund.

While international relief
organizations are pouring into Japan to help
people after the catastrophic earthquake and
tsunami, a handful of animal welfare groups are
pulling together to take care of the nation's
displaced pets.

Japan is a country that loves pets so it is no
surprise that rescue groups have teamed up to
help the estimated thousands of cats, dogs and
other animals that were injured or left homeless
after the quake.

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in
his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of
a man by his treatment of animals.
Immanuel Kant

Once again Canada ignores pleas from
compassionate people world-wide to stop the
barbaric seal hunt. This year the Canadian
government has sanctioned the mass killing of as
many as 400,000 helpless baby harp seals.

Below is a request from PETA for you to try and
put a stop to this atrocity, please consider
signing the petition and or making a domination:

In the weeks ahead,
scores of these young
animals will be beaten,
shot, stabbed with sharp
hooks, and sometimes even
skinned alive—all
so that someone can wear a
coat, a collar, or cuffs
made of real baby-seal fur.

PETA and caring people like
you are fighting
relentlessly to protect
these animals. We must
pressure the Canadian
government to listen to the
pleas of the international
community and millions of
people around the world who
want this annual slaughter
to stop. Seals need our help
right now. Please take the
following two important
actions today:

Make an urgent donation
to PETA
to help us win the fight to stop the killing
of seals and other animals for their fur.
Your generous gift will allow us to take on
the fur industry—designers, retailers, and
consumers—as only PETA
can.

Also from PETA:

More action you can take to stop this dreadful
cruelty not worthy of any Nation wishing to be
called civilised.

All
you
have
to
do
to
spread
the
word
is
follow
this
link
to
the
infographic,
then
tweet
it,
e-mail
it
to
your
friends,
or
post
it
to
your
Facebook
and
MySpace
pages.
With
your
help,
millions
of
people
will
instantly
see
the
truth
behind
Canada's
shameful
excuses
for
failing
to
put
a
stop
to
this
travesty.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way its animals are
treated.
Ghandi

What
does this annual massacre of helpless baby
animals say about Canada's moral progress? As
you can see by reading some of the comments in
the above PETA blog, this brutal slaughter does
little for Canada's image at home or aboard.

Like thousands of people throughout the world I
have written letters to Stephen Harper (Prime
minister of Canada) and other Canadian
government officials and signed petitions.
Animal rights and welfare groups have campaigned
tirelessly for a cessation of this slaughter and
the EU and the USA have banned seal products,
yet the government of Canada have remained
impervious to all pleas for compassion and a
cessation of this annually brutality.

It
is time that the Canadian government listened
and stopped this massacre here and now.

I
along with many others say to Stephen Harper:
Please stop this shocking cruelty now and
forever. If human beings are to ever progress
towards a peaceful society we must stop killing
the creatures with whom we share this world.

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which
is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop
harming all other living beings, we are still
savages."Thomas
Edison

From today in the selection bar you will find a
new page called simply reindeer. This is the
introduction page to a series of articles about
reindeer.

When my son suggested that I include a section
about reindeer I was at first a little hesitant
as reindeer do not come to mind when considering
animal rights. When most of us think of
reindeer, if we think of them at all other than
at Christmas time, we think of them as wild
animals roaming free in their native habitats,
not farm animals or animals used as
entertainment and so on. And rather like this
website which at the beginning was intended only
for general information about sheep, breeds
history and son on, this section was not
intended to highlight the plight of reindeer as
an animal seriously exploited by man but was
meant to be simply a few pages about such topics
as the natural history of reindeer, reindeer in
art and myth and other interesting aspects
concerning this gentle timid animal, about whom
most of us including myself know so little.

The
sad fact is that reindeer in many parts of the
world, although mainly Nordic countries and
Alaska, are exploited more than most of us
realise. There is even a reindeer farm in
Japan. Yes reindeer are farmed. From the ice
age until today man has exploited reindeer,
first as pry, than as nomadic herders such as
the Sami and other indigenous people in Sweden,
Norway, Finland and Russia who subsisted on
reindeer not only as food but also clothing and
shelter following the migrating reindeer as they
progressed on their annual migrations. During
the last century much has changed and nomadic
subsistence dependence on reindeer has evolved
to commercial exploitation with the consequence
of a considerable detriment to these nervous
gentle creatures as they are herded with
helicopters and snow mobiles instead of men on
skis and on foot. Domesticated Reindeer are
often confined to corrals prevented from
migrating, herded into vehicles and slaughtered
in large numbers for an ever expanding meat
market throughout the world. In additon these
creatures are used to promote tourism and are
increasing exploited as entertainment in shops
such as Hamleys in London at Christmas time, or
in parades, shopping centres and the like.
Reindeer antlers are even used as an
aphrodisiacs in some Asian countries. Reindeer
are exploited in more ways than I ever imagined.
They are of course hunted even by aspiring
potential US presidential candidates namely
Sarah Plain who shot a reindeer for the TV
reality Show Sarah Palin's Alaska. It is a sad
fact that reindeer are exploited and really none
of us should be the least surprised, and I feel
a little awkward about my naivety in the matter
of reindeer, as man it seems manages to exploit
just about every creature who draws breath.

Read various issues of interest concerning
reindeer including the history of their
domestication and modern day exploitation
beginning with Page One Reindeer: General Information were you can
access pages concerning the following topics:Reindeer Migration,
Reindeer: Myth, religion and Tradition, Reindeer
in Art Reindeer:Domestication a Short History,
Reindeer the Unlikely Farm Animal: Reindeer
Domestication in Recent Times and the issue of
Animal Rights, Reindeer: Emblems on Coins and
Stamps, Reindeer: Random facts

Please
participate into The Humane society's campaign to
stop the mass slaughter of badgers in the UK. Please
read and take action by clicking the links below.

The mass slaughter of badgers in
parts of England, as a means of
controlling tuberculosis in cattle,
now looks likely to
go ahead -- but you can
still make your voice heard for
badgers --
please speak out now!

Tuberculosis is a serious disease,
causing suffering to both cattle and
farmers, and imposing a huge
economic burden on the taxpayer.

But slaughtering badgers in huge
numbers isn't the answer; it will
result in the suffering of
individual badgers and the
disruption of badger populations
across our countryside.

Stricter controls on cattle movement
and testing, introduced in 2008,
have already resulted in significant
improvements - and all without a
single badger being slaughtered.

Please note I am not an expert in the care of
rabbits and the comments below are derived from
information I have gleaned as I try to educate
myself in the best ways to care for our adopted
rabbit. The best place to get advice is most
probably from your rabbit's vet.

Below is a photograph of our adopted rabbit
Sooty.

She
came to us last winter during the bitter cold
and heavy snow that we had here in the UK. She
was lucky to survive as she had been left
outside in her tiny hutch during one of the
coldest Decembers I can ever remember. As a
result of unfortunate circumstances her owners
had had to leave their home and although they
returned to feed her this poor little rabbit was
left all alone for the rest of the time outside even during the extreme cold of the
night.

Now
we do not agree with keeping pets (I prefer the
term companion animals), particularly animals
who are restricted to cages and hutches or other
close confinement, and would not go into a pet
shop to buy a rabbit or any other animal.
However the situation is that there are many
animals who have been abandoned. An RSPCA
representative has told us that it is a big
problem with rabbits and many get either let
loose to fend for themselves or taken to the
RSPCA or animal sanctuary when for various
reasons the owners are no longer able to or wish
to continue to care for their rabbit. There are
situations of course when the owner because of
illness or other dire circumstance cannot care
for his or her animals, as was the case with our
neighbours but mostly it is because
the novelty has worn off or the animal is not as
easily cared for as was anticipated.

Rabbits purchased to please children are soon
ignored and neglected after the child becomes
bored. Rabbits are not suitable
companion animals for children as they do not
like being picked up. Sadly the rabbit either
ends up abandoned or left in a tiny hutch all
alone at the bottom of someone's garden seeing
only the occasional visitor who perhaps throws
in some hay or pellets and cleans the hutch
whenever - mostly not very often as was the case
with the former owners of Sooty who said they
cleaned her hutch about every three weeks! Some
rabbits many be taken to organisations such as
the RSPCA or an animal sanctuary but many may
simply be turned out into the wild to fend for
themselves where they soon become food for pry
animals.

Regardless of the circumstances rabbits should
not be abandoned into the wild where they will
most likely die but should be taken to a safe
place, such as an animal sanctuary with a no kill
policy to be re-homed. Neither should they be
neglected in a hutch often left to die of hunger
and cold or eaten alive with maggots as a result
of fly strike.

We
knew the people who owned Sooty so we offered to
give her a home after we removed her from her
tiny hutch one bitterly cold night when a
neighbour of ours alerted us to the fact that
she has been left in the garden. When we brought
her inside, she was just so cold she stretched
out in front of the radiator. After looking
after her for a few months while the owners were
away they agreed to let us keep her.

We
are now looking for a suitable companion for her
from the RSPCA rabbit re-homing scheme, rabbits
need the company of other rabbits and can get
lonely when they do not have another rabbit as a
companion. In the
meantime though she is so much better off with a
large hutch and run and free range access to the
garden under supervision. Although she clearly
prefers to be outside she has a place inside
throughout the winter months and when the
weather is reasonable during the winter she can
go outside for some exercise during the daytime.

In
recent times it is now advised that people
should either bring their rabbits indoors during
the winter or at least put them in a suitable
shed. If neither option is available the hutch
should be made as warm as possible. The
following website offers advice on how to keep
your rabbit warm during the winter
rabbitrehome.org.uk/care/winter.asp

However
in my opinion if
you cannot provide either a shed or have the
rabbit indoors during the winter it might be
best not to give a home to a rabbit who will
spend a miserable time during the winter out in
the cold and damp and
suffer detriment to his or her health and maybe even die. Indoors is really preferable as I
would think that even in an unheated shed it is
too cold for any rabbit, it was
very cold last year during such extreme weather
when temperatures dropped to minus 11. I can
well imagine that many rabbits left in hutches last
year died. After all many wild animals died last
year,
including eighty percent of one species of owl. If you
can't cope with a free range house rabbit there
are plenty of good sized pens available for you
to use to keep your rabbit safe and warm indoors.
Click on the following link and scroll down to see
how you can use rabbit pens to house your indoor
rabbit
3bunnies.org/housing. Some good advice here
however some of the linked suggestions on this
website show cages and pens which in my opinion are
far too small even for temporary use at night time
or while you are out, let alone for regular
confinement, some of the arrangements do not even
allow enough height
for the rabbit to stand on his or her hind legs. It is recommended by the RSPCA that a
rabbit should be able to hop for at least three
consecutive hops, that is the minimum in any
confinement, more would be better. Rabbits should also be able to stand on
their hind legs without their ears touching the
roof, lie fully stretched in any direction and to
turn around unimpeded*

Rabbits
kept in a pen will need as much exercise time as you
can give them, advice about this is included in the
3 Bunnies orglink above and some of the links that
follow.

There is an abundance of
advice on the internet about the best way to
care for your rabbit and it is not possible to
include it all here. As already mentioned it has become more popular
recently for people to allow rabbits the run of
the house with only a pen or other confinement
at night or when no one is at home. This however
does need preparation, for instance wires and
electrical cables need to be protected to avoid
fatal consequences. In one website advice is
given concerning irritation to rabbits from
frequencies emitted from TV and stereos, to
avoid this it is suggested that rabbits are not
allowed into rooms that contain such equipment,
however this advice I have not found elsewhere
and many people seem to allow house rabbits
free range of the entire house. It can be
difficult to know which advice is sound and you
can become very anxious when you first begin to
look after any animal who you are not familiar
with. Common sense needs to be used, most
obviously electrical wires need to be bunny
proofed as rabbits chew through anything!

There are a number of websites that provide
advice for both indoor and outdoor rabbits and
there are many forums were you can ask questions
about anything of which you are uncertain.

Suggestions for accommodating rabbits are
included in the following links :

Personally I consider that in cold climates
rabbits should be kept indoors during the winter
months if possible and not taken from one
extreme of temperature to another, for example
from a warm centrally heated house into the
garden. Ideally a rabbit should be kept in
the coolest room of the house and most certainly
not in conditions of 80 degrees or more.

Sooty is a mixture of both. I think every
creature needs time outside in the sunshine and
fresh air.

Here is
some important advice from Rabbit Rehome about
indoor/outdoor bunnies

It is
ok to bring your rabbit inside for play times during
winter, or let it out for play times if he/she is
usually an inside bunny. However remember an inside
rabbit won't have developed the same thick winter
coat of an outside bunny so keep playtimes to the
warmest parts of the day. If your outdoor bunny
spends lengthy amounts of time inside they may start
loosing their winter coat in response to the warm
temperature

During the winter Sooty has her special bunny
accommodation in the bathroom where she will be
comfortable but not too hot, she also has the run
of the kitchen and part of the sitting room. It
is not easy with an indoor/outdoors rabbit
because of the advice to avoid sudden changes of
temperature so we will need to see what happens
this year as this will be the first full winter
she has spent with us. Last year after she came
to live with us she stayed indoors throughout
with the occasional exercise outside when the
weather was relatively mild, but during the
spring and summer it has became clear that she
is not too happy to be indoors all the time, though of course
we can never be sure what any animal wants and
like humans all animals are different, so
we will see how this will work out.

Whatever you do it is really never enough and I
often feel sad that no matter how large a space
she has it is still confinement. She often heads
towards the garden gate peering through the
cracks in the wood as though she wants to go
outside. Such an inquisitive creature, I can
imagine her frustration at always being
presented with barriers. Yes its better if you
have a garden, a large run and hutch and free
run of the house but in the end it is still an
unnatural confinement. But sadly this is the
best we can do. I hope that in time the need for
people to own animals, mostly for their own
needs and not for those of the animal, will one
day be a thing of the past and all animals will
live out their lives freely in their own
environment as nature intended. In the meantime
we can only do out best and offer an abandoned
animal a home and provide for him or her the
best life we can.

Rabbits and other pets are the
way they are because of selective breeding. They
are completely dependent on their human
caretakers and unlike wild rabbits they have
neither the physical make up nor the basic
instincts to survive. We have created the
problem and we now need to care for all
domesticated animals including rabbits and
offering an home to an animal who needs one is
the best way we can help abandoned and unwanted
animals rather than go into a pet shop which
perpetuates the pet trade.

Always
though remember that if you cannot care for your
rabbit find him or her a suitable home in a
sanctuary or similar NEVER ABANDON YOUR RABBITS TO
FEND FOR THEMSELVES IN THE WILD, THEY WILL
DIE.

Finally
many people consider that rabbits are not that
intelligent or as aware as are animals such as
cats and dogs and are simply cute fluffy fur
balls. Perhaps the following stories will make
such misinformed people think again.

By
clicking the link below you can read a recent
story concerning an heroic rabbit who saved his
owner from a fire.

As the house was burning a
brave rabbit saved his owner and her daughter
from fire by scratching her chest until she
awoke. Both the mother and daughter escaped
unharmed. Sadly the little rabbit died from
Smoke inhalation.

In
additon to the abuse and neglect of rabbits as
mentioned in the above entry there are many
rabbits who are farmed for their fur and meat.
Seen as a quick way to make money rabbit farming
is on the increase and is just as abusive as any other kind of factory
farming. Here in the UK rabbit
farming is mostly small scale touted as a high
profit making relatively problem free enterprise.
In other countries such as Australia it is
becoming one of the fastest growing new
industries.

When considering the abuse of factory farming we
seldom consider rabbits as victims of this
atrocity. Yet world wide approximately 865
million rabbits are subjected to a short and
miserable life as battery rabbits treated in the
same appalling way as battery hens.

These unfortunate creatures like battery
hens are crammed into cages measuring only about
45 cm in height with only wire for a floor
arranged in either single rows or stacked two
or three tiers high with spaces measuring only
about 0.56Square metres of floor space to
accommodate eight or more growing rabbits. This
is approximately the size of an A 4 piece of
paper, yes that is the tiny amount of space
allocated for one rabbit..

Beside the obvious
cruelty of inflicting pain and death upon any
animal the condition in which these poor
creatures are housed until they are sent to the
slaughter or used as breeding machines is nothing
short of inhumane and an atrocity against a
living feeling thinking being.

For
anyone who cares for any animal it is obvious
that such tiny spaces are inadequate. However in
case you are not familiar with rabbits or have
ever thought about how these animals we use and
abuse once lived in the wild here are some of
the reasons why imprisoning these animals is
cruel.

It
is obvious that these tiny cages are inadequate
for rabbits to exercise, to hop, jump and run.
The height makes it impossible for rabbits to
stand on their rear legs with their ears erect
as rabbits in the wild and those domesticated
animals properly cared for in a sanctuary and in
good homes are able to do and which of course is
a natural behaviour. Can you imagine not being
able to perform a normal functional movement such as stand to your full height. Beside the
basic discomfort regarding movement foot injuries are caused by
wire in the floor of the cages, a far cry from
the grass of the wild or soft hay to sit or lie on.
Furthermore these cramped conditions can lead to
skeletal, spine and leg disorders in older
rabbits that are used for breeding. Of course
rabbits killed at eight or ten weeks naturally
do not suffer these effects because they have
been denied the full quota of their expected life span,
which is about three years in the wild and up to
ten in a well cared for domestic situation.

The
lack of floor space also prevents normal
interactions with other rabbits. Rabbits are
social animals who construct burrows and form
groups of sometimes hundred or more
rabbits. Forming close bonds rabbits like to
groom and play with one another and form close
friendships. Rabbits also love to dig of course,
our rabbit sooty - see entry above- is obviously
enjoying herself when with great gusto she digs
and throws her soil everywhere. Rabbits like to
hide, Sooty has her own box into which at times
she retreats, as pry animals rabbits need at
times to feel the security of an enclosed space.
Gnawing on hard edible objects is yet another
behaviour denied these caged rabbits. Last but
most certainly not least, behaviours
associated with mothering such as preparing and
covering the nest and moving away from her off
spring are impossible within the confines of
this abusive system. Each doe will have
around five litters of between eight and ten
babies (called kits or pups) each year. At about
eight to twelve weeks of age, after being weaned
at four weeks these babies are taken to
slaughter. Naturally once her breeding days are
over she will be slaughtered, both does and bucks
(male Rabbit) are slaughtered between eighteen
to thirty six weeks of age. Some rabbits are
artificially inseminated

Confined in sheds rabbits never of course see the light
of day or feel a breath of wind. They are never
able to run or dig and burrow, form bonds with
other rabbits and do all the things that rabbits
are meant to do in the wild.

Yes
this is what happens to rabbits just like the
ones people think of as cute cuddly fluffy
animals with whom they share their homes. I can well imagine that there are
rabbit owners who love their bunnies and who
give them a good home yet may still eat a rabbit
stew. Although rabbit meat is not as popular as
lamb, beef or pork it is nonetheless widely
eaten the world over. Here in the UK
250 to 1 million rabbits are reared for meat
though many people think that the rabbit on the
menu in a restaurant or for sale in the butchers
is a wild rabbit. Not that this of course would
mitigate the atrocity of killing this sentient
being any more than it does any other of the
millions if not billions of other sentient
creatures who are murdered every year for their
flesh, fur or wool.

Rabbits just like all animals, like your cat or
your dog, are thinking feeling sentient beings.
Their lives matter to them as yours does to you.
They have the capacity to suffer as you do, to
feel pain, loneliness and fear. Yet like so many
animals they are treated as a means of
satisfying our appetite
for a food we do not need and to gratify the
fickle minded who put fashion above the lives of
other sentient beings. Rabbit fur, like fox and
mink fur, belongs to the animal to keep him or
her warm, it is not for human use. The killing
of animals for their fur is a disgusting
anachronism, remnants of a bygone age and has no
place in a modern civilsied society any more
than the slaughter of billions of helpless
defenceless creatures for their meat.

What Can I do

If
your really want to make a difference stop
eating rabbit meat and do not buy rabbit fur

Read the shocking facts about rabbit farming in
Australia in the article Battery
Bunnies

Undercover footage of
Portuguese rabbit farms shows the grim reality
of intensive factory-style rabbit farming, which
may now make a comeback in the UK Plans to build
half a dozen rabbit farms across the UK could
see an increase in intensive caged rabbit and
fur farming in the UK.

Watch the video showing
shocking cruelty and the dreadful conditions in
which caged rabbits are confined.

The
undercover investigations of rabbit fur farms in
China and France—two countries from which Armani
buys rabbit fur—revealed pitiful living
conditions for rabbits, who are confined to tiny
wire cages before they are slaughtered.

Read more of the PETA article and watch the
video if you are able to stomach such sickening
cruelty perpetrated against a gentle helpless
animal to take his fur and use his dead flesh
for meat.

Includes an opportunity to write to
Giorgio Armani
and urge him to keep the promise that he made by
permanently removing all fur from his
collections.

Urge Rushcliffe Borough Council to Reject Plans
for Two Rabbit Factory Farms

In December 2010 and
January 2011, Philip Kerry of T&S Nurseries
submitted two applications (10/02115/FULand11/00030/FUL)
to build rabbit factory
farms in Nottinghamshire. The proposed sites are
in East Bridgford and Granby.

It
is important to realise of course that animal
welfare while providing better conditions in the
short term continues to perpetuate the use of
animals as food and clothing and other uses.

The
ultimate answer to end animal suffering of this
nature is the cessation of all kinds of animal
farming and the adoption of a vegan diet. if you
want to stop the suffering of animals do
not eat meat or other animal derivatives or,
wear fur or wool.

I have heard so many
reasons why people think they have to eat meat,
reasons put forward perhaps to justify
themselves during a discussion or simply to
pacify the niggle of conscience. Such reasons
include health, religion, culture, habit - our
family has always eaten meat - lack of time and
not knowing what else to cook and taste - I
won’t deprive myself of this pleasure. Some of
the most erroneous justifications are: our
anatomy is “designed” to eat meat - not really
if you need to cook it and use a weapon to kill
it - and

we
can’t get sufficient nutrition without meat-
sufficient nutrition can be derived from non
meat sources.

However there is no
argument so unsettling as the following
justification extracted from a message left in a
environmental website recently in reference to a
story about a lamb who befriended the farmer’s
dog and became a family pet, with the assurance
that he would not meet the fate of his flock
mates. Along with such spiritually emoting words
as Karma, meditation, soul along the fact that she
was eating lamb that evening the author of the
message wrote:

“

Thank
you to the lamb who gave her life so that I may
eat!”

This type of glib
justification draped in the clock of
spirituality obviously not seen as a wrong doing
against another living sentient being is to my
mind particularly unsettling. Such justification
is often more difficult to dispel by reason for
the person has already found for herself an
acceptable validation which has removed any
pangs of conscience that might other wise make her reconsider.
Surprisingly spiritually and religion
can be huge stumbling blocks in the campaign to
liberate animals from human exploitation,
although the above rhetoric often does not
belong to a specific form of spirituality, such
as a recognised religious belief system, but
rather comes under the New Age umbrella of a
mishmash of ideas often using a mix of
terminology derived from a diversity of
religious belief and some simply born of the
philosophical notions of the individuals
concerned. With the exception of Jainism most
religions and philosophies may be interpreted to
allow the believer to justify the consumption of
meat.

In fact such reasoning
can be used to justify all manner of atrocities
perpetrated against all animals including man
and against the very earth itself. It is this
way of thinking that is often used validate war
and other outrages. I cannot understand the kind
of mind that can so easily accept such a
justification whether born of their own philosophy, or the
philosophy of others, or the distortion of
religious belief, without it would appear
the least degree of analysis. Hardly the
mentality of a great thinker, but than that is
the crux of the matter is it not. People simply
do not think even when they belong to an
environmentally aware internet group where at
the very least this person must have come across
mention of the problem with meat eating and how
it contributes to the destruction of the rain
forest and the allocation of land given over to
grow fodder for crops to feed well off people in
rich western countries while other people die of
malnutrition. It is as though such people are
blinkered, as if they see only so far. Often
this is simply not a deliberate intention, but
they are it seems incapable of thinking
otherwise despite other opinions literally being
in front of their eyes. This person had a
complex profile filled with the usual new age
platitudes about love and peace. How does such a
person expect to have a loving peaceful world
when she considers it okay to slaughter animals,
for surely she cannot seriously think that the
lamb she was to eat that night voluntarily gave
his or her life to feed her. Here is my reply to
the message

"Lambs or any other farm
animals do not give their lives so that you or
anyone else can eat. Rather lambs are forcibly
taken from their mothers and slaughtered.
Animals are here for their own purposes and wish
to live as much as we do. You do not need to
consume meat in order to live, in fact meat is
not a natural diet for human beings otherwise we
would not need to cook it . Meat as I am sure
you know not only destroys the lives of animals,
but eating meat takes up land to grow crops to
feed farm animals at the expense of other human
beings. So both for human and non human animals
it is a practice that we can well do without."

I have not given
references as doing so would most likely appear
to the person concerned as a personal attack.
Such I feel is not appropriate when making
references to people who leave comments on
forums. The above comment is in any case a
generic one, many such comments can be found on
the internet in similar forums.

Here is a heart warming story that may bring
tears to your eyes and renew your determination
to make the best of a difficult life if you are
unfortunate to suffer.

On
a personal note. I have a number of painful and
chronic conditions that make life increasingly
difficult at times and often it is not easy to
make the best of things and all to easy to slip
into depression and despair. The story below
about this little lamb's determination to make
the best of things really moved me.

A
compassionate Chinese farmer Cui Jinxiu has
spared a two legged lamb from slaughter because
of his determination to live. The little lamb
was born with only two legs and was hand reared
by Cui who says:

‘He
was so determined to live he pulled himself up
onto his own two feet and started drinking his
mother's milk. I couldn't let him die,’

It
of course goes without saying that rather like
the previous entry it is a tragedy that any
sentient creature, which clearly is obvious in
both cases concerning sheep and indeed of course
other farm animals, should be slaughtered in any
circumstance, however the above is nonetheless a
heart warming story of determination and
compassion. A tiny light of hope in a long and
dark tunnel of apathy and indifference towards
our fellow creatures which sadly seems to
pervade most of the world concerning our
treatment of non human animals with whom we
share this world

For me
personally the animal rights ethic/vegan ethic should include
the welfare of our own species.

One of
the great injustices of mankind is that of allowing
millions of people to die of hunger. In the coming
months as many as 70,000 people in Somalia could
die. In the last three months 30,000 children
have already died and 12 million people are at risk.

Please
take action today to prevent the deaths of thousands
of people

Please
watch the short video " The F Word: Famine is the Real
Obscenity” and sign the petition which will be sent
to world leaders at the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in
November, they have the opportunity to break the
cycle of famine.

The famine in Somalia
could kill 750,000 in the coming
months, and tens of thousands
have already died. When you meet
at the Group of 20 (G-20) Summit
in November, you have the
opportunity to break the cycle
of famine and ensure people are
hungry no more. Lives are in
your hands. Please keep the
promises you have made to the 2
billion poor people who depend
on farming for their
livelihoods.

The reasons for the famine in
the Horn of Africa are complex
and solutions are difficult,
especially in Somalia, but we
can’t lose sight of some simple
facts:

1. 30,000 children have died
in just 3 months. Thirty
thousand. With over 12 million
people at risk.

2. Famine is not a natural
catastrophe – drought doesn’t
have to lead to famine. It can
be prevented, as we’ve seen in
much of Kenya and Ethiopia.

In the 21st century, it’s an
obscenity that people are dying
because they can’t get enough
food to eat. Every one of those
30,000 children is part of a
family – a son, a daughter,
sister or brother. We can’t
imagine what it must be like to
starve to death, but most of us
know what it’s like to lose
someone we love.

Please watch the film and
make use of the voice you have
-- sign the petition. It will
make a difference in putting
pressure on world leaders to do
more to help those in need right
now, and live up to promises
already made to invest in the
things proven to work – early
warning
systems...irrigation...drought
resistant seeds… and of course,
peace and security.

Thanks!

The
film is produced by One International a grass roots
grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization
that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease,
particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness
and pressuring political leaders to support smart
and effective policies and programs that are saving
lives, helping to put kids in school and improving
futures.

ONE's new
public service announcement 'The F Word: Famine is
the Real Obscenity' (see entry above) has been
banned from being broadcast in the UK.

Please sign
a petition which directly concerns the a ban on the
broadcast on British television of the above video
that focuses the world's attention on the famine and
food crisis in the Horn of Africa, aiming to save
millions of lives from slow, cruel starvation.

Please sign the petition

Please
click the link below for more
information and to sign
a petition asking those responsible to lift the
ban and allow ONES film to be broadcast

A women
Gena Robinson in a vengeful act microwaved her
former best friend's kitten. Her than friend had
reported Robinson's abusive partner to the police
and Robinson decided to take it out on the tiny ten
week old kitten in an unimaginable and callous act
of cruelty that turns the stomach of most people.
Yes maybe it was an act done in the heat of the
moment, not that I imagine such an act of cruelty
would present in the minds of most people who might
have broken a valuable ornament or other inanimate
possession of which the owner was fond, not that
primitive acts of vengeance serve any purpose. But
to use this defenceless animal in this wanton act of
cruelty is truly shocking. And besides the kittens
owner was sent a text message saying:
"Remember the saying 'What goes around comes
around'? It has started already to bite you in the
a**e. The cat? Karma." So
seemingly not a lot of remorse there

Perhaps if
the law took a firmer stance and and punishment was
more appropriate to the crime there would be less
cruelly to animals. With the continuing increase of
cruelty and neglect it is time the law was changed
to reflect these serious acts of crime perpetrated
towards defenceless sentient feeling thinking beings
who like you and and I feel pain and wish to live.
Here is how this act of cruelty was described in the
Hufftington post:
Ms Knutton, (kittens
owner) who is
hard of hearing, was able to hear a noise "like a
crisp packet being popped", followed by a loud
"screeching" while in the lounge, separated from the
kitchen by a hallway and two doors.

Sounds
horrific! Most of us cannot understand the mind
state of a person who commits such an act of hideous
cruelty.

Read the
complete article and comment, the more people who
speak out the better.

Animals
give me more pleasure through the viewfinder of a
camera than they ever did in the crosshairs of a
gunsight. And after I’ve finished “shooting,” my
unharmed victims are still around for others to
enjoy. I have developed a deep respect for animals.
I consider them fellow living creatures with certain
rights that should not be violated any more than
those of humans. Jimmy
Stewart

The
shocked father of a primary school child has
complained to the school after his daughter came home in tears after
seeing ducks shot. What he thought to be a bird watching trip was actually
a wildfowling trip organised by Ely and
District Wildfowlers' Association.

As
Ray Poolman packed his 10-year-old daughter Danielle
off with a little chair and binoculars to go on a
birdwatching trip, little did they know what lay
ahead.

But the schoolgirl arrived home later that day in
floods of tears after being subjected to a
"harrowing" hunting experience. Instead of lessons
on the "different species of wildfowl" and
"conservation of the landscape", as promised by the
school, the Year Six pupils witnessed birds being
shot and killed for sport.

Now not
being of the hunting fraternity I would have had no
any idea what wildfowling is and this was most likey
the case with the father and no doubt other parents
also. The exact nature of the school trip was not
fully explained. Yes perhaps parents should have
checked it out more carefully but hey we trust schools do we not and quite
honesty how many of us would actually consider that
a school would organise a trip that included the
barbaric slaughter of helpless animals, usually
referred to as "sport", as a good choice for a
school outing. Wildfowling has a more acceptable ring
to it than duck shooting and had the latter term
been used rather than the former I think many
parents would not have given permission for their
child to go.
The concerned father had thought that this was a
bird watching trip and considering comments included
in the information parents received along
the lines of seeing an "evening flight" with
no mention of guns or shooting, it is easy to see how
this trip could be seen simply as an opportunity to
observe wild birds.

I think
it's shocking that any child should be subjected to
the barbaric cruelty of killing any animal and
introduced to the practice of hunting for pleasure,
which of course is all hunting is nowadays as no one
needs to eat the dead flesh of any animal and most
certainly no one needs to go out and shoot one for
food. Should
children who tend naturally to see such actions as
innately cruel as did this child be gradually
desensitised into thinking that it is okay to kill
another living being for fun. Or brain washed into
thinking that it is the right thing to do for
conservation purposes as was implied by the head
teacher in response to the complaint:

"It is not just
'let's go out
and shoot
ducks'; there is
a whole
conservation
issue which the
school deals
with."

It is not
conservation, it is not culture, it is not sport, or
any other of the more respectable labels hunters
give to this barbaric pastime, it is merely a sadistic practice that has no place
in a modern society. The excuse of conservation to
my mind is an attempt to add some
respectability to what is still a sadistic pastime and is nothing more than an excuse to justify taking the lives
of these animals who have as much right to live as
you or I. Since when has conservation been about
killing animals. Conservation means to preserve, protect or
restore the natural environment, natural
ecosystems, vegetation and wildlife, not to destroy
them. What right have human beings to control
populations of other creatures, to mould them to our
needs. We cannot even control our own populations.
For God's sake leave nature and other animals alone.
The veneer of conservation might make such acts of
brutal and cowardly cruelty more acceptable, but in
reality it is used as a facade for those who get
some sick pleasure in killing another creature and a
tool to brain wash others into seeing the practice
as a benefit rather than a detriment, as ethical
rather than immoral, as a necessity rather than an
outdated indulgence

Notice
that theEly wildfowlers.elywildfowlersrog.uk/elywildfowlers/
refers to shooting and conservation in the same
sentence. What has shooting got to do with
conservation. Many people including myself take the
word conservation literally to mean preservation and
consider that conservation is about saving and
protecting animals not killing them. It seems we
have to be so very careful about applying literal
meanings to these relatively new concepts that for many are still unfamiliar and not
take them as face value. Mostly though conservation
is not about killing animals but rather protecting
them, sadly the meaning as become distorted to add
respectability to this primitive behaviour.

When I was
a child such a trip would not have taken place. I
cannot imagine the reaction that would have ensued
had my parents received a letter asking permission
to take my sister and I to witness a duck shoot, as such would not have been veiled in words as
wildfowling or conservation of course.

The father
has a right to complain. He though is a fishermen
who sadly does not see his pastime as killing and
most likely does not understand that a fish is an
animal as is a duck. Nevertheless he was right
to complain and I would have done much the same had
my child been subjected to such an unsuitable school
trip.

Why the
school has had no other complaints is probably due
to the continuing desensitisation of children
towards their more natural response of horror to the
killing of animals by using such justifications as
conservation and the like. Children's minds are so
easily shaped into thinking what they are told to
think. We know do we not that at first a child's
reaction to meat is often one of abhorrence and it is not
easy to get children to eat it. But eventually
they do as a result of adult pressure and than they
in turn go on to influence their children likewise

What
shocked me more than anything though was the
comments from readers of the newspapers below and
here I quote just a few:

We are all
Carnivores for goodness sakes!! What's wrong in
shooting an animal if you are going to eat it????

No we are
not all carnivores, neither are we omnivores, human
beings are naturally herbivores. Think about it, if
humans were carnivores we would not need a weapon to
kill our food, we would have sharp canine teeth and
claws to tear the flesh and we would not need to
cook it. Name any other animal who cooks their meat.

Its
hunting. Get over it child. Someone should toughin
the child up a little bit.

Toughen up
the child so she can go about killing ducks, or
become so desensitised that she no longer notice's
the horrors that take place in our world concerning
man's cruelty to man and other animals which sadly
is the case. I think she is just fine as she is, a little more sensitivity in the world would
go a long way to stopping all the violence that we
humans subject each other and other species to.

30 years
ago the school used to give kids an excused absence
on the first day of hunting season. Now they don't
even want you to talk about it...not to mention that
awful G word......­gun.

Not only
should the hunting season not be mentioned but it
should be banned, hunting animals is an anachronism
in the modern world and it no longer necessary . For
the cave man yes but for twenty-first century
man most certainly no. In the twenty-first century
people mostly man, but I am increasingly shocked to
see more women, kill animals because they enjoy to
do so, it
is as simple as that. There is rarely if ever any
justification. I have lived in a rural areas
for 40 years and never recalled days of school absence
for hunting. And yes gun is an awful word for an
awful weapon that kills and maims countless millions
of animals and humans.

It's about
British heritage though, conservati­on and something
specific to their area, they should be learning
about where they come from or we all end up as
nationwide clones. Her father is a fisherman, he
should fully understand the interest of keeping
heritage sports and activities alive.

Heritage,
sports, conservation all words to mitigate the fact
you are killing another sentient being which in the
modern world here in the UK is not necessary.
Heritage now really has no place as a justification,
hunting was once a necessary in a by gone age but in
modern times is it a barbaric throw back, one
that should not be promoted as Heritage. Is war an
heritage that we must persevere, like hunting we
have always practiced war, should we preserve
that as an heritage. I think its time we need to
look at heritage and consign some of its more
violent less civilised manifestations to history
were they belong including, but certainly not limited,
to hunting.

"hunting
has always been and will always be a part of our
culture"

Odd, I
always think of culture as something ennobling such
as art, the humanities shared values of a more
evolved and elevated way of life as in for example the definition
included in the following entry from Dictionary.com

Culture:

1.the
quality in a person or society that arises from a
concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts,
letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.
2. that which is excellent in the arts, manners,
etc.
3. a particular form or stage of civilization, as
that of a certain nation or period: Greek culture.
4. development or improvement of the mind by
education or training.
5. the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a
particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth
culture; the drug culture.
dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture

Yes
indeed culture can mean a pattern of behaviour regardless
of its enhancement or otherwise as in the example of
the drug culture but most people when
they hear the world culture rarely think of
barbarous acts of cruelty

People used to say that about segregatio­n...just
might want to think a bit before using absolutes
like "always.".

By the way: hunting to survive is a WHOLE different
animal from huntin­g for "sport", even when it's
sanitized by 'well we eat what we kill".
In the main this comment is more realistic, the use
of the word "always" needs to be questioned, because
something has always been done does not make it
right, nor does it mean that we cannot change it.
There has always been hunting and there as always
been war both absolutes often used to justify or
accept a continuance of these practices. You can
imagine the word always was once used as a
justification for slavery, child labour and so on
and such would have persisted had
not some one made a stance against their
continuance.

And yes
hunting to survive, now not generally a necessity
for survival in the twenty-first century, is entirely different from
hunting for sport. Sport of course implies pleasure
does it not, so hunting is for pleasure, even with lame
attempts at its justification by " we eat what we
Kill"

Meanwhile 10
year old
school
children in
Iraq and
Afghanista­n
and a
multitude of
other
places, 10
year olds
don't have a
school and
witness
their family
members,
friends and
neighbors
being shot
and killed
for oil and
money

Yes indeed
you are
correct but
two wrongs
do not make
a right and
comparing
one with the
other does
not mitigate
the fact
that hunting
and killing
innocent
animals is
wrong just
as killing
innocent
people in
war is
wrong,
in both
these cases
they are
done for
self
interest,
one for
pleasure,
the other
for
oil and
money
sought by
the greedy
profit
ridden
capitalist
system at
the expense
of humans,
other
animals and
the
environment.

Surely a child
who cries
over the
killing of
ducks is
less likely
to go to war
to kill
another
human being.

Many crimes
of brutality
begin will
the
perpetrator
killing
animals with
out compunction
or killing
for pleasure

I think that
a person who
is able to
shoot a duck
or other
animal is
one step
closer to
killing a
human being.
I am not
saying that
every hunter is
likely to
kill another
human being only
that they
are one step
closer to
doing so
perhaps than someone who
would not
kill any
animal

Consider the
following
quotation
from
Pythagoras

"As long as
man
continues to
be the
ruthless
destroyer of
lower
beings, he
will never
know health
or peace.
For as long
as men
massacre
animals,
they will
kill each
other.
Pythagoras
570–c. 495
BC Greek
philosopher
and
mathematician

I fear when
I read
stories like
this, heaven
help us if
we ever have
another war,
with whimps
like this.

With "wimps"
like this
perhaps we
would never
have another
war.

Leave the
child with her sensitivity, be pound that she has
such sensitivity do not destroy this natural
propensity.

I fear
when I see people with guns, people who can so easily
take the life of another being. I dislike this time
of year when in such places as the Durham Dales, the
Yorkshire Dales and everywhere there is natural
countryside when taking a walk you suddenly come
across these people carrying guns ready to kill any
creature that moves, usually those tiny
grouse. Big brave sportsmen. Remember the shocking
killing spree in Cumbria by David Bird a man who
used to shoot rabbits! He killed 12 people with no
qualms whatsoever. Had guns not been licensed for the
killing of animals these twenty people would still
be alive today. Read more on this
website.

Yes gun is
an awful word and for children to see the shooting
of ducks is an outrage

Children
will probably learn more about how to appreciate wildlife and
these sentient beings with whom we share this world
in the old fashioned way by a trip to the park or
lake to feed the ducks on a Sunday afternoon

Preserving
nature such as in nature reserves is fine in fact
desirable up to a point and that point is reached when we
start to kill animals who have as much right to live
as you or I. Nature takes care of her own and needs
no man or women with a shot gun for assistance.

Odd how I thought
conservation was about saving animals

When I was
twelve, I went hunting with my father and we shot a
bird. He was laying there and something struck me.
Why do we call this fun to kill this creature who
was as happy as I was when I woke up this morning.”
Marv Levy